Howling At The Storm
by SquirrelWho
Summary: After losing Amy and Rory the Doctor is done saving the universe because the universe doesn't care, but then something impossible happens. Rose Tyler appears on his TARDIS. She's in trouble, but for some reason she doesn't want his help. Eleven/Rose
1. Meddling TARDIS

Okay, with this we're all caught up on everything I'm working on. Rose isn't entirely happy with the Doctor in this one. It is a reunion fic, but with some real life problems thrown in. :)

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Amy and Rory were gone. The angels took them and there was nothing he could do to get them back without destroying the universe. He thought about it, briefly, okay, a bit more than briefly, but he couldn't bring himself to do it.

To hell with the universe and every bloody thing in it. If that's all he was going to get was heartache, being forced to lose everyone he loved over and over again then he didn't care. Why should he save the universe if it was going to take everyone he loved?

He growled, slamming his hand against the console. River was gone. To the Library. He saved her, his past regeneration saved her, but again, he'd never be able to see her again. She wasn't Amy and definitely not…he rubbed his face, no, don't think about _her_. He couldn't think about _her_.

She was gone forever. Safe. Happy. But far beyond his reach. He sighed. Why? Why couldn't he be happy? Just once, why couldn't he have some bit of happiness. Something for everything he sacrificed. It wasn't fair!

Another sigh escaped. Then he turned around and set the coordinates for Victorian London. The universe could bloody well get on without him. The TARDIS rocked, pitching him to the side. He grabbed onto the console to keep from falling.

"What?" he glared at the time rotor.

He was greeted by another violent pitch. What the hell was wrong with her? The TARDIS shuddered. He started flipping levers and pushing buttons, but that only seemed to make matters worse as she pitched again.

"Oh, come on," he growled, irritated that she was meddling when all he wanted to do was find some out of the way place and forget about the universe, forget about everyone he lost.

A familiar zapping noise greeted him and he quickly spun around as someone teleported inside his TARDIS.

"That's not possible," he said as thought and speech combined in his surprise. In the next moment both thought and speech dissolved into nothingness as he realized who was standing in his TARDIS.

"Who are you and what the hell did you just do?" Rose demanded, eyeing the man standing a few feet from her.

She'd been in the process of teleporting to the coordinates Jack sent her via text, but the moment she pressed the button she felt a strange pulling sensation. Did he have something to do with taking Tony? Was this some sort of trap and how the hell did he manage to control her vortex manipulator.

"I…" was all the bloke managed.

She looked at him then, really looked. He seemed surprised, startled, and something else. Not fear, but something akin. Okay, this wasn't him.

"I'm sorry…I uh…" she began, trying to come up with a credible lie as to how she managed to pop out of thin air, but at that moment her eyes fell on the console, which was completely different, yet, familiar. She gazed around the room, also completely different yet familiar. Then she felt it. The TARDIS. A presence in her mind, but more than that. Then again, of course she would be more than that, because Rose wasn't the same. She was different. Finally, her eyes came back to the man who was now looking at her as if she were a ghost. That almost made her laugh…almost, as she thought of the words she once spoke to him, _You look like a ghost. _

"Rose?" he asked in the whisper of someone afraid that the last vestiges of hope were about to be ripped from him.

The moment recognition entered his mind all those emotions he walled away came rushing back. The wall dissolving like rice paper in water. He wanted to reach for her. To hold her. Touch her golden hair. But he dared not move for fear that his hand would go through her. That she was a hologram or a trick of some sort because she couldn't be real. Oh, god, but she looked real. Solid. Whole. The same as the day he dropped her back in that parallel world. Different clothes, short, black leather jacket, red, low cut tank top, very low cut, jeans that were a bit too tight, trainers, but exactly the same otherwise. As if she'd just popped home to change. His hand twitched involuntarily, but he held himself back…barely.

Then her eyes connected with his and he smiled. Only, she didn't return his smile. Instead she looked as if she'd rather be anywhere else in the universe.

"Brilliant," she snapped with more sarcasm than he'd ever heard from her.

Then she did something that made both his hearts synch in panic. She typed coordinates into the vortex manipulator on her wrist. The rational part of his mind, which there wasn't much of with her standing right there in front of him, told him she couldn't teleport off the TARDIS, but somehow she'd gotten on the TARDIS so it was a possibility. One he couldn't ignore.

Rose had to get out of there. This was bad on far too many levels. He shouldn't even know she was back. She'd done a good job of avoiding him for the past two months, not the easiest thing in the world when the mad alien would pop up at any number of random places and times and she herself had been traveling to different places and times trying to track down…No, best not even think it least the TARDIS realize what she was hiding.

She pulled the walls down in her mind and felt the startled and then curious presence in her mind that told her the TARDIS knew something was up. _Bollocks! _She definitely had to get out of there before things went anymore sideways than they already had.

"Wait," the Doctor cried, hurrying toward her, but paused when she looked up and stepped back as if she didn't want to be anywhere near him. This wasn't the Rose he remembered. Wait. Maybe she didn't know who he was. "Of course," he exclaimed, slapping his forehead, which made her eyes widen a moment. Not in fear, but…humor? He couldn't tell. "You, I, I'm the Doctor." She continued to stare at him. "I'm the Doctor," he repeated. "I regenerated. Different face." He bent toward her and she backed off again. "But I'm still the same."

"I got that with the TARDIS, yeah?" she replied, as if she already knew who he was, but if she did then why was she acting so strange?

"You knew."

"I'm on the TARDIS, you're the only other person here, doesn't take a genius to figure it out."

What she didn't mention was that she felt him. In the back of her mind. It's what told her he was the Doctor and not some companion. Another reason to keep the walls up, least he figure out what she was hiding.

_Sister! _The TARDIS' musical voice rang through her mind. _Bollocks! _She should've known the TARDIS would figure it out. It's one of the reasons she'd been avoiding the Doctor. One of many reasons.

Both of the Doctor's hearts fell. She knew, but she didn't care. Why didn't she care? He wanted to ask, but he doubted she'd tell him. Not with her flippant answers. So, he settled on the next question.

"How are you here? You should be-"

"Back in that parallel universe where you dropped me, yeah?"

He took a step back at her answer, as if it bit him.

"I didn't-"

"Don't even bother, Doctor. I've had a long time to get over you and this time I didn't come back to you. This," she waved her hand around the console room to indicate the TARDIS. "Wasn't my doing. I was trying very hard to stay as far from you as possible."

She saw the hurt in his eyes, but she ignored it, okay, tried to ignore it. After everything he put her though she shouldn't let him get to her, but he did. He was the Doctor. _Damn him! _

No, she wasn't going to let him do this to her. Suck her back in. She gave him a chance. Hell, she crossed universes to find him and she was going to tell him and then he just left. Left her with a copy of himself. No, that wasn't fair to John. He tried, he really did, but he knew that she needed the real thing, especially after he found out…No! No, don't go there, if she went there the TARDIS would know. _Know what? _Crap!

He tried to pull all those emotions back. To slip the mask into place, but it was nearly impossible with her. So, he refocused. There was something in the way she said _I've had a long time to get over you_.

"How long?"

"Sorry?" she asked, taken back by his question, but that was a good thing. It refocused her thoughts.

"You said you've had a long time to get over me, so how long?"

She blinked and then realized she let something slip she shouldn't have. Quickly, she tucked away her surprise, though she knew he'd seen it.

"I don't have time for this," she snapped and moved to press the button on her vortex manipulator, but this regeneration was much faster than she thought and he caught her wrist before she could hit the button and in another, faster than she expected move, he pulled the vortex manipulator off her wrist.

"Give that back!" she demanded. "I have to go. I have to…" she trailed off, knowing she couldn't tell him.

He'd want to help, but she didn't need his help. _Yes, you do_. Her own thoughts this time, but she told her mind to sod off. Okay, maybe she could use his help. Really, definitely could, but she didn't want it. Not after he abandoned her, abandoned both…She pushed the thought aside before it formed.

"Have to go where?" he asked, smiling and she wanted to slap that smile off his face.

"It's mine!" she yelled. "You have no right!"

"My TARDIS. My Rules," he replied, giving her another smile that made her hand itch to slap him.

"Fine," she growled, pulling her wrist out of his grip, turning on her heels and stalking for the doors.

She could always get another vortex manipulator, wouldn't be easy, but Jack would take her back to Dorian, not that she liked dealing with him and it would cost something dear to Torchwood. Jack would do it though because he knew how important this was. She stopped in her tracks when she heard the unmistakable sound of his sonic and then the doors locking. If he thought locked doors were going to stop her then he didn't remember her very well. She pulled her own sonic out and unlocked the doors.

She had a sonic? The Doctor raced across the room as she opened the doors and caught her before she stepped out into –

"Of course we're in space," she said with that sarcasm again. "Why the hell are we in space?"

"I hadn't decided where to go yet."

God. He was touching her. Actually touching her. His arm around her waist and she was close. So close. He leaned over and smelled the strawberry shampoo in her hair.

Wait. Was he smelling her hair? What the hell was he doing? Not that she minded his arm around her waist. No, no, this was bad, really not good. He left her. Abandoned her! She couldn't let him pull her back in.

She pulled away from him and stalked back toward the console. She needed to get out of there. To get to those coordinates, but the Doctor was being his usual nosy self and wasn't about to let her leave until he found out why she was there.

_How the hell did I even get here? _She shouldn't have been able to teleport aboard the TARDIS.

_I brought you here, _the TARDIS replied.

"Why?" she asked, glancing at the time rotor.

"Why what?" the Doctor asked.

She gave him a glance and then ignored him.

_We missed you. _

Now she did look at the Doctor. _No, no! I can't do this again. _

The Doctor watched her. She didn't seem to be talking to him, but who else…Wait. No. She couldn't be talking to the TARDIS. He was the only one who could communicate with the TARDIS.

"Who are you talking to?" he asked.

Instead of answering she folded her arms and eyed him.

"Look, I need to get back. Are you going to take me or not?" she demanded.

"As soon as you tell me what's going on."

"What's going on with what?" she asked, feigning ignorance.

"With you. This," he indicated her, "Isn't you."

She laughed a bit more bitterly than she intended, but she spent years trying to get back to her universe after Tony was taken. It was enough to make anyone bitter, especially when everything came down to him and his bloody insistence on making decisions for her.

The bitterness of her laugh told him that something was definitely wrong with her. The Rose he knew never laughed like that. She was the most human human he knew. Compassionate, happy, caring. Not this bitter, angry woman standing in his TARDIS. What could've happened to her to change her so much?

"How would you know? You haven't seen me in…" she trailed off, realizing that he was trying to bait her, but she wasn't about to bite.

"Yes?" he prompted.

She could feel the TARDIS prompting her too, but she didn't have time for this. She also knew he wasn't about to let her go until he got answers. _Damn him! _

There was no getting out of this. She'd have to tell him something or he'd never let her leave. Fine, but there was no way in hell she was letting him help her. She didn't need his help, hadn't needed it since the day he walked away.

"You want to know how long it's been?" she snapped.

She was angry, but that could be sorted later. Answers. That's what he wanted and he was about to get them. He folded his arms and waited.

"Yes," he replied.

"Twenty years ago, linear time, I acquired a vortex manipulator from a Kahler seeking refuge on Earth. I spent eleven years hunting down everything that I would need to make a working dimension cannon, popping in and out of different times because most of the equipment I needed was highly advanced. Then I had to wait the twenty years for the TARDIS coral to mature enough to use it with the dimension cannon, which was the only way to be sure I'd wind up in the proper universe at the proper time."

"But that means-" he began, disbelievingly.

"For me, Bad Wolf Bay was thirty-four years ago," she finished. "Now, I'd like to go."

* * *

Standard Disclaimer.

Thank you to all my brilliant readers!

**Reviews are always welcome. :)**


	2. Not Entirely Human

For a moment all the Doctor could do was stare at her. Somehow the one woman he loved above all others, the woman who was etched not only across his hearts, but his soul, returned. He didn't care that she said she didn't come back to him, a minor detail that could be sorted later. She looked exactly the same, only it'd been thirty-four years.

"No…no," he shook his head in disbelief. "That." Turned on the spot and began pacing, flinging his hands around exaggeratedly. "That isn't possible. It can't have been thirty-four years! That's….that's simply not possible."

Rose watched him. This new regeneration, though he wasn't new, but he was new to her, seemed very animated. She thought the last one was, but how wrong she'd been. She almost smiled…almost. If not for the urgency of her situation she might have.

"You can say that as many times as you like, but it doesn't change the facts," she replied.

Her voice brought him back to the reality of the situation. He turned back to her and closed the distance between them.

"You haven't aged."

She rolled her eyes.

"If all your going to do is stand there and point out the obvious I'd like my vortex manipulator back because you don't need me for that."

"What happened to you?" he asked, meaning more than the not aging. Her entire attitude was different. There was no awe in her eyes, no cheeky smile.

"I doesn't matter," she dismissed.

"Yes, it does. This matters! This is important!"

"I don't have time for this," she snapped, stepping around him and up to the console. "If you're not going to take me back," she flipped the lever for the time rotor, "then I will."

"What are you doing?" he demanded, crossing the room quickly.

When they traveled together he taught Rose enough about the console to give her an understanding of it and she helped him fly the TARDIS on occasion, but she never flew the TARDIS on her own.

She entered the coordinates for Torchwood. Torchwood? Why was she going to…at that moment the TARDIS pitched sideways.

"No! No, don't do this to me!" she yelled.

"What did you do?" he demanded.

"It's not me. It's…" she began, but was cut off as the TARDIS landed hard, throwing them both to the floor.

Rose hit the floor, but she was on her feet a moment later. The TARDIS wasn't going to let her go. She felt the presence demanding to know what was going on, same as the Doctor. _Bullocks! _

"I have to get back!" she insisted, staring at the time rotor.

The Doctor stood up, watching her. Rose seemed to be yelling at the…_No. No. _She couldn't be talking to his TARDIS. That just wasn't…but then Rose wasn't possible.

Thirty-four years and she hadn't aged a day. He pulled out his sonic and scanned her while she had a row with his ship, but at the noise she spun around and eyed him. He looked at the readings.

"That's-" he began.

"Not possible," she finished.

He looked at her. Rose. Rose Tyler. The woman he loved. He swallowed. What the hell happened to her?

"But you're-"

"Not entirely human, yeah, already got that."

"How?"

"It doesn't matter."

"Yes, it does," he snapped, crossing the room.

She was being infuriating. Somehow she found her way back to his universe, changed, different, but did she try to find him? To ask for his help? No. She went running to Torchwood. To…

"Jack," he growled.

"What?" she asked, completely baffled.

What the hell did Jack have to do with anything? She needed to get out of there. To get away before he figured out what was going on and insisted on helping her locate Tony. _Tony? _The TARDIS asked. Rose sighed. _Brilliant! _

"You didn't come back for me," he snapped, glaring at her with fury she hadn't seen in a very long time. "You came back for _him_."

The Doctor never wanted to kill another man as much as he wanted to kill that immortal sod at that moment. There had always been something between Rose and Jack, but she claimed they were just friends. Obviously that changed.

Another laugh escaped her, but this one wasn't etched in bitterness. It was a genuine laugh.

"What?" he asked, but she continued until tears formed in the corners of her eyes. "Stop that!" Which only proved to make her laugh harder. "Shut up!"

"You think," she managed after a few minutes, but giggled and then paused, wiping the tears. "You think me and Jack…for a genius you really can be a bloody idiot."

"You said you didn't come back for me."

"I didn't," she replied, turning back to the console.

This was getting dangerous. He made her slip, made her forget for a brief moment the urgency of her situation, made her laugh. God. She hadn't laughed in years, not like that.

"Come on old girl," she coaxed, flipping the lever for the time rotor, but it flipped back of its own accord.

"What did you say?" the Doctor asked, closing the distance between them. _Old girl. _She said it and it was something she couldn't know. He hadn't called his TARDIS that in his previous regenerations. There was no way she could know.

"I said _I didn't_," she replied without turning around.

"No, after that."

She ignored him, but he wasn't about to let her hide things from him. Everything about her was important. He grabbed her shoulders and spun her around. Gold flecks danced in her deep hazel eyes. They hadn't been there before. He shook that off, he could worry about that later.

"What did you say after that?" he insisted.

"Nothing," she lied, averting her eyes.

"You said _old girl_. You called my TARDIS _old girl_," he said.

She wasn't sure if she got the name from him or the TARDIS. It was one of them. She couldn't tell him that. If she did he'd…what? Probably want to run tests. Figure out exactly what she was, something she didn't even know, but there wasn't time. Even with Torchwood Jack hadn't been able to figure it out and she knew the sonic only confirmed that she was human plus something. She could see that in the Doctor's mind.

"So?" she asked.

"How did you know?" he demanded.

"How did I know what?" she inquired, feigning ignorance.

"I never called her that in front of you."

"You must have."

"No. No, I haven't."

Nope. She couldn't do this. It was much too dangerous. She tried to pull away, but he held her firmly.

"Let me go!"

"Not until I find out what happened."

"Good luck that," she snapped.

She wasn't going to tell him. Well, there was one way to find out. He hated doing it, but if she wouldn't tell him then there was really only one way for him to find out. He leaned closer.

Rose's eyes widened. What the hell did he think he was going to do? For a brief moment she thought he was going to kiss her, then she saw it. It was right there in his mind. Well, to hell with that. She put her hands on his chest and shoved him back. Hard.

The Doctor stumbled back, releasing her as she shoved him. Shoved him! Rose Tyler actually shoved him and not nicely either.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" she yelled.

"What the hell do I think I'm doing?" he yelled back. "_You_ shoved _me_!"

"Stay out of my head you bloody wanker!"

"Bloody what?" he snapped, closing the distance between them as he glared at her. Wait. He blinked. Stay out of her head? How did she… "You knew. How did you…" but he knew. She'd been inside his mind. She heard his thoughts. "You're telepathic. How are you telepathic?"

Before she could answer he reached out and put his hand on her chest. On her chest! She smacked his hand, but he didn't move it, well, he did, but to the other side.

"Doctor! What the hell!" she yelled and then she pulled back and slapped him across the face.

His head snapped to the side as he felt, for the second time in his life and the first time in this body a Tyler slap.

"Ow!" he yelled, feeling his cheek. "You slap like your mum."

"Grope me again and you'll get more than that."

"Grope…?" He glanced at her and felt his cheeks flush. "I wasn't…I wouldn't…I…" he glanced at her chest and realized what he'd done. He felt his face flush more. "That…um…you only have one heart," he finished, as if that was some sort of defense.

Rose watched his face turn three different shades of red and again, almost laughed. She held it back, but couldn't stop the smile that formed. He'd been checking to see if she was like him, though she wasn't sure how that could happen, but then she wasn't…no, she knew how she became the way she was, she just didn't know what she was.

"You could've asked," she replied, still sporting the smile that for some reason made him bring out a goofy one.

She dropped her smile immediately. She couldn't let him do this, couldn't let him get to her. She gave him a chance all those years ago and he left.

"Yes. Well. Next time," he said and then his smile turned…cheeky? "So," he continued, slapping his hands together and giving her an excited look, complete with sparkling eyes, "you're telepathic and you can't age. What else?"

"I don't have time for this," she insisted.

"Yes, you've said that, but seeing as how the TARDIS isn't going to let you go anywhere you might as well answer my questions."

She stared at him a moment. He was right, well, about the TARDIS. She could feel the presence in her mind confirming that they weren't going anywhere until she got some answers. _Brilliant! _

"So, ready to answer my questions?" he asked.

Oh, this regeneration was really full of himself. Well, she could take him down a peg.

"Actually, Doctor," she began, eyeing him, "It's not your questions I need to answer." At that she opened her mind to the TARDIS and allowed her sister to see the truth.

* * *

Standard Disclaimer.

Thank you to all my brilliant readers!

**Reviews are always welcome. :)**


	3. Who's Your Daddy?

"What do you mean, not my questions you have to answer? There isn't anyone else here," the Doctor fumed. "Rose. Rose!"

TARDIS ignored her thief's questions. She loved him, but as her sister said he could be an idiot sometimes. She missed all the companions they lost, but she'd missed her Wolf most of all. Rose had filled her corridors with laughter and brought happiness to her thief after the Time War. She needed that as much, if not more than her thief.

When Gallifrey was destroyed there was silence, not only for her thief, but for her as well. She was cut off from her sisters, from the constant music of their thoughts, but then there was her Wolf. She was a light in the darkness, a light that TARDIS desperately needed.

When she asked to save their thief TARDIS saw what she most desperately desired. One word. Forever. So, she gave her Wolf the forever only her thief, idiot that he was, didn't see it. He left her behind. TARDIS grieved after that, more than her thief. Her heartbreak ripped her apart when he regenerated.

As soon as she sensed that her sister had returned she latched onto her and brought her there. She wasn't sure if her Wolf had changed yet, it would take dying for the metamorphosis, but she knew now that the change was complete.

She sifted through the information in her sister's mind and what she found both delighted and enraged her. Tony. She could see the boy in her Wolf's mind. Five years old. Taken from the parallel universe. Taken because he wasn't ordinary. Taken because…she flashed her lights in rage and would've shocked her thief had he been near the console. _Stupid thief. _

"What?" the Doctor cried, feeling the rage from his TARDIS and seeing the lights flash menacingly. "I haven't done anything!"

The console sparked, making him jump even though he wasn't near it.

"What did you say to her?" he demanded, eyeing Rose.

"I didn't say anything," she replied, opening her eyes.

"Yes, you did. I don't know how you did, but you did."

Another threatening spark and he jumped further away. Rose couldn't help laughing, which made him eye her.

"I don't know what she said to you," the Doctor continued, looking at the time rotor, "but I didn't do it."

Half the console sparked and the arch it created nearly reached him.

"Traitor," he yelled.

At that moment a hologram of the Doctor in his ninth regeneration appeared. It was different from the emergency protocol hologram that she remembered. A bit more solid.

"What's this then?" the Doctor demanded.

The hologram looked at Rose, completely ignoring the Doctor.

"The Doctor has been an idiot, Rose Tyler, but I will help you any way I can."

She couldn't help smiling at that. The Doctor on the other hand wasn't at all pleased.

"What do you mean, I've been an idiot?" he snapped.

The hologram eyed him with the same blue eyes he used to have.

"The Doctor has been an idiot," the TARDIS ninth Doctor repeated.

"I'm the Doctor, you're my TARDIS, you're supposed to be on my side."

"The Doctor has been an idiot."

"Stop saying that!"

"Then stop being an idiot."

"I'm not…you're…" he fumed. "If you keep this up I'm disconnecting the voice interface!"

The hologram vanished and the console lit up. The Doctor ran over to see what the TARDIS was up to now. She was running a search. Wait.

"Why didn't you tell me you were trying to find your brother?" he asked.

"Did she find him?" Rose asked, hurrying over to the console.

"No, but she's trying. What happened to him?"

"Someone took him and brought him here."

"Someone breached your universe to take your brother? Why would they do that?"

"What do you mean, why would they do that? It doesn't matter why they did it. I have to find him."

"Yes, we'll find him, of course we'll find him. I just mean, why him?" He caught the narrowing of her eyes and knew she was upset with him, but this was important. "Breaching a universe is nearly impossible and to do so without ripping either universe apart, without leaving rifts that I would've detected is even more impossible, but they did and they did it all to take one boy. Why?"

"I…don't know," she lied.

The lights dimmed for a moment, but Rose didn't need the dimming lights to tell her the TARDIS wasn't happy with her lie because she heard the words whispered through her mind. _Tell him. _

"No," she snapped, folding her arms.

She was hiding something from him. The Doctor could see that without the TARDIS' help.

"I can't help you if I don't know everything," he insisted.

"Who asked for your help? After she locates him I'll leave. I can save my…Tony without your help," she said.

_Tell him. _

"No!" she yelled.

For a moment the Doctor wasn't sure who she was yelling at, then he realized she must be fighting with the TARDIS. The TARDIS sent him feelings, but not words. Could Rose hear the TARDIS? He shook his head. That didn't matter at the moment. What mattered was Tony and the fact that she would rather go out and save him on her own then tell the Doctor what she was hiding.

"Rose, just tell me," he tried, hoping a calmer approach might make her open up.

She eyed him.

"I tried to. I really did. That day on the beach all those years ago. I was going to tell you, but then you left."

She was trying to turn this around, well he wasn't about to let that happen. He remembered that day well, went over it many times and it hurt each time.

"Of course I left. You kissed him. You made your choice."

And for the second time that day he received a Tyler slap. His head snapped to the side and he was fairly sure this one was harder than the last.

"My choice? _My _choice? My choice was to stay with you aboard the TARDIS you bloody wanker. You're the one who brought me back to that godforsaken beach," she yelled. "Yes, you're right, I kissed him. He told me what I'd been wanting you to say for over two years. He said those words in your voice with your face so I kissed him! Could you blame me after everything that I went through. After spending nine months…" She stopped, realizing what she almost said and turned around quickly, wiping the tears that spilled from her eyes.

"What?" he asked, trying to make sense of her last sentence. "Spending nine months what?"

She took a deep breath to steady herself and then turned around.

"He's a Time Lord, all right? That's why they took him."

"I'm sorry…what? You're brother's a Time Lord? How is that even…" and then it clicked. He was slow. Notoriously slow, but eventually he always got there. She said _nine months_. Tony's a Time Lord.

Then it came back to him. The day he said goodbye after they were separated. The day he burned up a sun.

_"There's five of us now. Mum, Dad, Mickey…and the baby."_

_"You're not…"_

_She laughed, a bit sadly._

_"No, it's mum. She's three months gone. More Tylers on the way."_

Tony wasn't her brother. He was her son. His son.

* * *

Standard Disclaimer.

Thank you to all my brilliant readers!

**If you have time Reviews are always welcome. :)**


	4. Stormcage

"You lied to me," he snapped, rounding on her.

Most people would've been afraid at the anger, not only in his voice, but his eyes as well, but Rose had never been most people. And she definitely wasn't anymore. Her hands flew to her waist and she glowered at him.

"Seriously?" she growled. "That's what you're going to say?"

He stepped toward her, pointing an accusing finger. He'd never been more upset with anyone in his entire life, which was over twelve hundred years. She took it upon herself to decide what he needed to know. No one had a right to do that!

"You should've told me!" he yelled.

"We were separated you arse! By an entire universe! I didn't want you to blame yourself anymore than you already did!"

"So you decided not to tell me," he snapped.

"What would you have done, Doctor? Burning up an entire sun only allowed us to see each other. Tell me, Doctor! What choice did I have?"

"You don't ever decide what I need to know!"

"Oh, my god! Can you even hear yourself? Did you tell me you were going to take me back to that parallel universe and drop me with your clone? Did you ask what I wanted? Who the hell gave you the right to make all the decisions?"

The TARDIS knew her thief was about to stick his proverbial foot in his mouth and, since she found something, she took that moment to flash her lights and ding the bell on the console. The fighting abruptly stopped as they both raced over to the monitor.

The Doctor looked at the monitor. _What? No! _The TARDIS found Tony all right, but this was bad, really not good. He was…

"He's in Stormcage," he said.

Rose sighed.

"I know," she replied.

He turned to her.

"You know?"

"I've been searching for him for two month. Don't you think I've run across him? I haven't actually seen him, not face to face, had to make sure of that because I know that would create a fixed point and I can't chance that. I came back to this date so I could find him before all that happens. Before they do whatever they do to turn him into that," she indicated the hardened picture of her son who appeared to be in his late twenties.

His heart broke at the fear and frustration in her voice. Tony was his son too, but she'd been with him, she gave birth to him. She wasn't just a mother mourning her child, she was Rose, his Rose, mourning their son.

"Rose," he began, intent on explaining the situation as he reached for her, but she shoved him away.

"No!" she yelled, shaking her head. "Don't you dare! Don't you dare tell me it's too late! I can save him! I have to," she felt herself breaking and she knew there wasn't enough glue in the universe to put her back together if she allowed it. "I promised! I promised him after I got back from trying to find his father, from trying to find _you_," she spat the word out as if it was bitter. He stood there and took it, although inside he was dying because this was on him, "that I'd never leave him again," a tear slid down her cheek, but she ignored it. "I have to find him and if I have to create a paradox or destroy the entire universe to save him I will! Do you understand me?"

She was screaming now, but she didn't care.

The Doctor reached for her then. He ignored the way she tried to pull away from him and held her, pulling her close and wrapping his arms around her. After a few minutes she collapsed against him and began crying. He whispered soothing words in Gallifreyan as he stroked her hair. She'd been alone too long, but she didn't need to be anymore. He would fix this, no matter the cost because this was on him.

"I wasn't going to say it can't be done," he whispered when she calmed down enough. "We'll find him, Rose, before this all starts. We'll save him."

She heard his words and she could hear the truth of them in his mind. She'd spent so long on her own, too long it seemed. She was afraid to let anyone in, especially him, especially the man she was still love with, the man who walked away, but she also knew that if anyone could save her son…their son…then it was him. The Doctor.

* * *

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	5. Tony's Plight

The Doctor stared at the face of the hardened criminal. His son. _Their _son. In Stormcage for murder, like someone else he once knew, but Tony hadn't killed one person, he was guilty of genocide. His own son wiped out an entire race.

He sighed, turning the monitor off. Rose was sleeping, finally. He doubted she slept much in the last few months and probably not much before that. _Thirty-four years_. Another sigh escaped him as he rubbed his face.

This was on him. All of it. If he hadn't left her. Why did he leave her? Oh. Right. To give her the life she wanted. The life he _thought _she wanted. Why didn't he listen to her? She kept saying _he's not you_. Was she trying to tell him? She said she was going to tell him, but the shock of leaving his meta-crisis with her must have rattled her. God, he could be such an idiot sometimes and this time…this time it might have cost him something he never thought he'd have again. A family.

No, no he had to find his son. He had to find Tony before all this happened. This wasn't like River. They'd never actually met. If he could keep that up, make sure they didn't run into each other then he could fix this.

Hell, if he had to go to every time, every year, forward, backward, it didn't matter. He'd find the boy when he was still a boy. Save him. He owed Rose that, he owed his son. He failed them once he couldn't do that again.

He turned back to the console and glanced at the Gallifreyan writing.

"Anything?" he asked.

The feeling he got was _no_. He typed a date on the keypad.

"Maybe we'll get lucky in 2004," he said, grabbing the lever for the time rotor and flipping it.

* * *

"I want my mum," Tony whined.

He was in a room that was all white, even he was all white in the trousers and shirt they gave him. He didn't like white, not anymore. He'd been there forever and he didn't like it there, not one little bit. He wanted to go home to his mum.

The scary woman in black walked toward him. She came through the door that wouldn't open and he tried like a hundred million times.

"But I thought you liked it here," the woman said.

He shook his head no, lots.

"Nuh uh. I wanna go home."

"We were getting along so well."

She leaned toward him as he sat on the bed and he scooted back.

"I want to go home!" he yelled as loud as he could.

"That's not very nice," she warned.

"You're not very nice."

She grinned, that really scary grin with all her teeth. She had normal teeth, but there were lots of them when she smiled like that. He wanted her to go away, way far away and never, ever come back.

"I could just eat you up," she continued.

His green eyes widened in fear and then he grabbed the white blanket and pulled it over his head, wondering if she really would eat him up. She probably could with all those teeth.

"My mum's gonna find me," came his muffled reply.

"She'll never find you, you know why?"

"Why?" he asked peeking out from the blanket.

"Because I used a little trick I learned from some Dalek friends-"

"Daleks aren't friends they're bad, really, very bad."

"But I'm bad too, which makes us friends."

"My mum fought the Daleks. She'll find me."

"My mum, my mum, my mum. I swear if you weren't so important I'd shut you up for good."

He pulled the blanket back over his head and stayed that way, even after he heard her shoes on the floor going away and the door slide open and shut. He didn't like her, not one bit. He hoped his mum was coming soon because he didn't want to be there anymore. It was a really very bad place.

* * *

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	6. 1989 Part 1

Rose joined the Doctor at the console after taking a shower and changing her clothes. He glanced at her. She wore a pair of jeans similar to the other ones and a blue tank top with her trainers. Her hair hung down. God, she looked beautiful.

He shook that thought off. Now, wasn't the time for that. Not when her eyes were filled with so much sadness and loss.

"Found anything yet?" she asked.

"Not yet, but we will," he replied, giving her a smile and she gave a half hearted attempt to return it, but only managed to look even more sad, which broke his hearts.

He pulled her into a hug that she allowed, but he could tell that she still wasn't really okay. He sighed and pulled back a moment later.

"Where are we then?"

"1989."

"Started on a Sunday," she commented, fiddling with one of the levers. He glanced at her. He still didn't know exactly what she was. Not a Time Lady, but not human, not anymore. "A lot of bad stuff," she mused.

"But some good stuff too," he chimed in, but she just kept fiddling with the lever, not even glancing at him. At that moment the TARDIS filled with the sound of an old song, one he hadn't been able to listen to in a very long time. _Moonlight Serenade. _

Rose gave him a sideways glance and he grinned. Then he offered his hand.

"I think she's playing our song," he said. She hesitated, but he wiggled his fingers and that brought out an actual grin. She took his hand and he quickly pulled her close, nearly bumping her against him and she giggled, which made him smile. "Now, Rose Tyler," he said, gazing into her eyes, "you'll find your feet at the end of your legs, you might want to move them."

Then they were dancing, well, his version of dancing and she started laughing.

"Oh, my god, you're a rubbish dancer," she laughed.

He feigned being hurt, but it was difficult because her laugh reached into his hearts, making him want to smile more than anything. He still hadn't gotten over the fact that she was really there. Rose Tyler in the TARDIS with the Doctor. Back exactly where she belonged, where she'd always belonged.

"I'll have you know I'm an excellent dancer," he miffed.

"Not from this angle," she replied with a grin.

Then he dipped her and after he brought her back up his dancing improved. Of course, he could always dance well, he was trying to make her laugh, something he accomplished. She grinned in that way she used to. The TARDIS took that moment, of course, to interrupt them.

They raced over to the console and he brought down the monitor.

"He's been here," the Doctor said.

"When?"

"March 10th." There was camera feed, so he brought up the camera feed. They watched a fourteen year old version of Tony who looked different from the Stormcage picture and he suspected was different from the boy Rose remembered.

"'S that him?" Rose asked, watching the boy who had burst through a door into what appeared to be some sort of lab.

"Yes."

Tony trained a blaster on the nearest scientist and fired. Rose gasped. Then he shot another and another.

"How old is he?"

"Fourteen."

A tear slid down her cheek. Nine years. This was her son nine years later. She wanted to look away, but she couldn't. It was like watching a car accident.

The Doctor watched the boy…his son. There were emotions, but he pushed them down. What was Tony after? When everyone was dead or dying the boy walked over to one of the bodies, took a set of keys from the man's pocket, and walked over to a cabinet, unlocking it. Then he picked up a vial, gazed at it a moment, and then stuffed it in his pocket. He left without glancing back.

The Doctor typed on the keypad, accessing the files.

"What're you doing?" she asked, wiping the tears from her eyes.

"Finding out exactly what he took," the Doctor replied.

Then he glanced at the monitor.

"What was it?"

"I…I don't know. It says _unknown_." There was only one way to find out. He typed the coordinates and date in. Then he glanced at her. "Guess we'll have to find out."

Then he pulled the lever for the time rotor.

* * *

"I wanna go home, I wanna go home, I wanna go home!" Tony yelled banging his little fists against the door.

Hedra glanced at him through the monitor. She hoped he would've settled down by now, he'd been doing that for nearly ten minutes. This was why she never had children, annoying little things. She eyed the man sitting at the desk. She didn't catch his name as he was unimportant.

"Can't you do something about that?" she snapped.

He just stared at her fearfully. She rolled her eyes.

"I'll do it myself," she continued, pressing a button.

* * *

Tony's hands hurt from banging on the metal door, but he didn't care. Then he heard a sound. A scary sound, like snakes. It was a hissing sound and was coming from everywhere. He turned and ran back to his bed, pulling the blanket over his head, but it was still there. He could still hear the snake sound. Were there snakes?

His eyes grew heavy and he yawned. He blinked and found it was too hard to open his eyes. Then he was asleep.

* * *

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